Isaiah 14:23 (CSB)"I will make her a swampland and a region for wild animals, and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction." [This is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

Isaiah 14:23 (LEB)"And I will make her a possession of [the] hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep her away with [the] broom of destruction," {declares}<note: Literally "declaration of"> Yahweh of hosts.

Isaiah 14:23 (MSG)" God's Decree. "I'll make it a worthless swamp and give it as a prize to the hedgehog. And then I'll bulldoze it out of existence." Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Who Could Ever Cancel Such Plans?

Isaiah 14:23 (NIRV)"I will turn it into a place where nothing but owls can live. I will turn it into a swamp. I will sweep through it like a broom and destroy everything," announces the LORD who rules over all.

Isaiah 14:23 (NLT)I will make Babylon into a desolate land, a place of porcupines, filled with swamps and marshes. I will sweep the land with the broom of destruction. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken!"

Isaiah 14:23 (WYC)And I shall set that Babylon into possession of an urchin, and into marishes of waters; and I shall sweep it with a besom, and I shall stamp (it), saith the Lord of hosts. (And I shall give that Babylon into the possession of hedgehogs, or of conies, and to the marshes of water; and I shall sweep it with a broom, and I shall stamp it, saith the Lord of hosts.)

Commentaries For Isaiah 14

The destruction of Babylon, and the death of its proud monarch. (1-23) Assurance of the destruction of Assyria. (24-27) The destruction of the Philistines. (28-32)

Verses 1-23 The whole plan of Divine Providence is arranged with a view to the good of the people of God. A settlement in the land of promise is of God's mercy. Let the church receive those whom God receives. God's people, wherever their lot is cast, should endeavour to recommend religion by a right and winning conversation. Those that would not be reconciled to them, should be humbled by them. This may be applied to the success of the gospel, when those were brought to obey it who had opposed it. God himself undertakes to work a blessed change. They shall have rest from their sorrow and fear, the sense of their present burdens, and the dread of worse. Babylon abounded in riches. The king of Babylon having the absolute command of so much wealth, by the help of it ruled the nations. This refers especially to the people of the Jews; and it filled up the measure of the king of Babylon's sins. Tyrants sacrifice their true interest to their lusts and passions. It is gracious ambition to covet to be like the Most Holy, for he has said, Be ye holy, for I am holy; but it is sinful ambition to aim to be like the Most High, for he has said, He who exalts himself shall be abased. The devil thus drew our first parents to sin. Utter ruin should be brought upon him. Those that will not cease to sin, God will make to cease. He should be slain, and go down to the grave; this is the common fate of tyrants. True glory, that is, true grace, will go up with the soul to heaven, but vain pomp will go down with the body to the grave; there is an end of it. To be denied burial, if for righteousness' sake, may be rejoiced in, ( Matthew 5:12 ) . But if the just punishment of sin, it denotes that impenitent sinners shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt. Many triumphs should be in his fall. God will reckon with those that disturb the peace of mankind. The receiving the king of Babylon into the regions of the dead, shows there is a world of spirits, to which the souls of men remove at death. And that souls have converse with each other, though we have none with them; and that death and hell will be death and hell indeed, to all who fall unholy, from the height of this world's pomps, and the fulness of its pleasures. Learn from all this, that the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. The royal city is to be ruined and forsaken. Thus the utter destruction of the New Testament Babylon is illustrated, ( Revelation 18:2 ) . When a people will not be made clean with the besom of reformation, what can they expect but to be swept off the face of the earth with the besom of destruction?

Verses 24-27 Let those that make themselves a yoke and a burden to God's people, see what they are to expect. Let those that are the called according to God's purpose, comfort themselves, that whatever God has purposed, it shall stand. The Lord of hosts has purposed to break the Assyrian's yoke; his hand is stretched out to execute this purpose; who has power to turn it back? By such dispensations of providence, the Almighty shows in the most convincing manner, that sin is hateful in his sight.

Verses 28-32 Assurance is given of the destruction of the Philistines and their power, by famine and war. Hezekiah would be more terrible to them than Uzziah had been. Instead of rejoicing, there would be lamentation, for the whole land would be ruined. Such destruction will come upon the proud and rebellious, but the Lord founded Zion for a refuge to poor sinners, who flee from the wrath to come, and trust in his mercy through Christ Jesus. Let us tell all around of our comforts and security, and exhort them to seek the same refuge and salvation.

"It moves in lengthened elegiac measure like a song of lamentation for the dead, and is full of lofty scorn" [HERDER].

Isaiah 14:24-27 . CONFIRMATION OF THIS BY THE HEREFORETOLD DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB;

a pledge to assure the captives in Babylon that He who, with such ease, overthrew the Assyrian, could likewise effect His purpose as to Babylon. The Babylonian king, the subject of this prediction, is Belshazzar, as representative of the kingdom ( Daniel 5:1-31 ).

5. staff--not the scepter ( Psalms 2:9 ), but the staff with which one strikes others, as he is speaking of more tyrants than one ( Isaiah 9:4 , 10:24 , 14:29 ) [MAURER]. rulers--tyrants, as the parallelism "the wicked" proves (compare

7. they--the once subject nations of the whole earth. HOUBIGANT places the stop after "fir trees" ( Isaiah 14:8 ), "The very fir trees break forth," &c. But the parallelism is better in English Version.

Hades (the Amenthes of Egypt), the unseen abode of the departed; some of its tenants, once mighty monarchs, are represented by a bold personification as rising from their seats in astonishment at the descent among them of the humbled king of Babylon. This proves, in opposition to WARBURTON [The Divine Legation], that the belief existed among the Jews that there was a Sheol or Hades, in which the "Rephaim" or manes of the departed abode.

9. moved--put into agitation. for thee--that is, "at thee"; towards thee; explained by "to meet thee at thy coming" [MAURER]. chief ones--literally, "goats"; so rams, leaders of the flock; princes ( Zechariah 10:3 ). The idea of wickedness on a gigantic scale is included ( Ezekiel 34:17 , Matthew 25:32Matthew 25:33 ). MAGEE derives "Rephaim" (English Version, "the dead") from a Hebrew root, "to resolve into first elements"; so "the deceased" ( Isaiah 26:14 ) "ghosts" ( Proverbs 21:16 ). These being magnified by the imagination of the living into gigantic stature, gave their name to giants in general ( Genesis 6:4 , 14:5 , Ezekiel 32:18Ezekiel 32:21 ). "Rephaim," translated in the Septuagint, "giants" Thence, as the giant Rephaim of Canaan were notorious even in that guilty land, enormous wickedness became connected with the term. So the Rephaim came to be the wicked spirits in Gehenna, the lower of the two portions into which Sheol is divided.

10. They taunt him and derive from his calamity consolation under their own ( Ezekiel 31:16 ). weak--as a shade bereft of blood and life. Rephaim, "the dead," may come from a Hebrew root, meaning similarly "feeble," "powerless." The speech of the departed closes with Isaiah 14:11 .

11. "Pomp" and music, the accompaniment of Babylon's former feastings ( Isaiah 5:12 , 24:8 ), give place to the corruption and the stillness of the grave ( Ezekiel 32:27 ). worm--that is bred in putridity. worms--properly those from which the crimson dye is obtained. Appropriate here; instead of the crimson coverlet, over thee shall be "worms." Instead of the gorgeous couch, "under thee" shall be the maggot.

The language is so framed as to apply to the Babylonian king primarily, and at the same time to shadow forth through him, the great final enemy, the man of sin, Antichrist, of Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John; he alone shall fulfil exhaustively all the lineaments here given.

12. Lucifer--"day star." A title truly belonging to Christ ( Revelation 22:16 ), "the bright and morning star," and therefore hereafter to be assumed by Antichrist. GESENIUS, however, renders the Hebrew here as in Ezekiel 21:12 , Zechariah 11:2 , "howl." weaken--"prostrate"; as in Exodus 17:13 , "discomfit."

13. above . . . God--In Daniel 8:10 , "stars" express earthly potentates. "The stars" are often also used to express heavenly principalities ( Job 38:7 ). mount of the congregation--the place of solemn meeting between God and His people in the temple at Jerusalem. In Daniel 11:37 , and 2 Thessalonians 2:4 , this is attributed to Antichrist. sides of the north--namely, the sides of Mount Moriah on which the temple was built; north of Mount Zion ( Psalms 48:2 ). However, the parallelism supports the notion that the Babylonian king expresses himself according to his own, and not Jewish opinions (so in Isaiah 10:10 ) thus "mount of the congregation" will mean the northern mountain (perhaps in Armenia) fabled by the Babylonians to be the common meeting-place of their gods. "Both sides" imply the angle in which the sides meet; and so the expression comes to mean "the extreme parts of the north." So the Hindus place the Meru, the dwelling-place of their gods, in the north, in the Himalayan mountains. So the Greeks, in the northern Olympus. The Persian followers of Zoroaster put the Ai-bordsch in the Caucasus north of them. The allusion to the stars harmonizes with this; namely, that those near the North Pole, the region of the aurora borealis (compare Job 37:22 ) [MAURER, Septuagint, Syriac].

14. clouds--rather, "the cloud," singular. Perhaps there is a reference to the cloud, the symbol of the divine presence ( Isaiah 4:5 , Exodus 13:21 ). So this tallies with 2 Thessalonians 2:4 , "above all that is called God"; as here "above . . . the cloud"; and as the Shekinah-cloud was connected with the temple, there follows, "he as God sitteth in the temple of God," answering to "I will be like the Most High" here. Moreover, Revelation 17:4Revelation 17:5 , represents Antichrist as seated in BABYLON, to which city, literal and spiritual, Isaiah refers here.

15. to hell--to Sheol ( Isaiah 14:6 ), thou who hast said, "I will ascend into heaven" ( Matthew 11:23 ). sides of the pit--antithetical to the "sides of the north" ( Isaiah 14:13 ). Thus the reference is to the sides of the sepulcher round which the dead were arranged in niches. But MAURER here, as in Isaiah 14:13 , translates, "the extreme," or innermost parts of the sepulchre: as in Ezekiel 32:23 (compare 1 Samuel 24:3 ).

Isaiah 14:16-20 . THE PASSERS-BY CONTEMPLATE WITH ASTONISHMENT THE BODY OF THE KING OF BABYLON CAST OUT, INSTEAD OF LYING IN A SPLENDID MAUSOLEUM, AND CAN HARDLY BELIEVE THEIR SENSES THAT IT IS HE.

16. narrowly look--to be certain they are not mistaken. consider--"meditate upon" [HORSLEY].

19. cast out of--not that he had lain in the grave and was then cast out of it, but "cast out without a grave," such as might have been expected by thee ("thy"). branch--a useless sucker starting up from the root of a tree, and cut away by the husbandman. raiment of those . . . slain--covered with gore, and regarded with abhorrence as unclean by the Jews. Rather, "clothed (that is, covered) with the slain"; as in Job 7:5 , "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust" [MAURER]. thrust through--that is, "the slain who have been thrust through," &c. stones of . . . pit--whose bodies are buried in sepulchres excavated amidst stones, whereas the king of Babylon is an unburied "carcass trodden under foot."

20. not . . . joined with them--whereas the princes slain with thee shall be buried, thou shalt not. thou . . . destroyed . . . land--Belshazzar (or Naboned) oppressed his land with wars and tyranny, so that he was much hated [XENOPHON, Cyropædia 4.6,3 7.5,32]. seed . . . never be renowned--rather, "shall not be named for ever"; the Babylonian dynasty shall end with Belshazzar; his family shall not be perpetuated [HORSLEY].

21. Prepare, &c.--charge to the Medes and Persians, as if they were God's conscious instruments. his children--Belshazzar's ( Exodus 20:5 ). rise--to occupy the places of their fathers. fill . . . with cities--MAURER translates, "enemies," as the Hebrew means in 1 Samuel 28:16 , Psalms 139:20 ; namely, lest they inundate the world with their armies. VITRINGA translates, "disturbers." In English Version the meaning is, "lest they fill the land with such cities" of pride as Babylon was.

22. against them--the family of the king of Babylon. name--all the male representatives, so that the name shall become extinct ( Isaiah 56:5 , Ruth 4:5 ). remnant--all that is left of them. The dynasty shall cease ( Daniel 5:28-31 ). Compare as to Babylon in general, Jeremiah 51:62 .

23. bittern--rather, "the hedgehog" [MAURER and GESENIUS]. STRABO (16:1) states that enormous hedgehogs were found in the islands of the Euphrates. pools--owing to Cyrus turning the waters of the Euphrates over the country. besom--sweep-net [MAURER], ( 1 Kings 14:10 , 2 Kings 21:13 ).

Isaiah 14:24-27 . A FRAGMENT AS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB.

This would comfort the Jews when captives in Babylon, being a pledge that God, who had by that time fulfilled the promise concerning Sennacherib (though now still future), would also fulfil His promise as to destroying Babylon, Judah's enemy.

26. This is . . . purpose . . . whole earth--A hint that the prophecy embraces the present world of all ages in its scope, of which the purpose concerning Babylon and Assyria, the then representatives of the world power, is but a part. hand . . . stretched out upon--namely, in punishment ( Isaiah 5:25 ).

To comfort the Jews, lest they should fear that people; not in order to call the Philistines to repentance, since the prophecy was probably never circulated among them. They had been subdued by Uzziah or Azariah ( 2 Chronicles 26:6 ); but in the reign of Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 28:18 ), they took several towns in south Judea. Now Isaiah denounces their final subjugation by Hezekiah.

28. In . . . year . . . Ahaz died--726 B.C. Probably it was in this year that the Philistines threw off the yoke put on them by Uzziah.

29. Palestina--literally, "the land of sojourners." rod . . . broken--The yoke imposed by Uzziah ( 2 Chronicles 26:6 ) was thrown off under Ahaz ( 2 Chronicles 28:18 ). serpent's root--the stock of Jesse ( Isaiah 11:1 ). Uzziah was doubtless regarded by the Philistines as a biting "serpent." But though the effects of his bite have been got rid of, a more deadly viper, or "cockatrice" (literally, "viper's offspring," as Philistia would regard him), namely, Hezekiah awaits you ( 2 Kings 18:8 ).

30. first-born of . . . poor--Hebraism, for the most abject poor; the first-born being the foremost of the family. Compare "first-born of death" ( Job 18:13 ), for the most fatal death. The Jews, heretofore exposed to Philistine invasions and alarms, shall be in safety. Compare Psalms 72:4 , "Children of the needy," expressing those "needy in condition." feed--image from a flock feeding in safety. root--radical destruction. He shall slay--Jehovah shall. The change of person, "He" after "I," is a common Hebraism.

31. gate--that is, ye who throng the gate; the chief place of concourse in a city. from . . . north--Judea, north and east of Palestine. smoke--from the signal-fire, whereby a hostile army was called together; the Jews' signal-fire is meant here, the "pillar of cloud and fire," ( Exodus 13:21 , Nehemiah 9:19 ); or else from the region devastated by fire [MAURER]. GESENIUS less probably refers it to the cloud of dust raised by the invading army. none . . . alone . . . in . . . appointed times--Rather, "There shall not be a straggler among his (the enemy's) levies." The Jewish host shall advance on Palestine in close array; none shall fall back or ing from weariness ( Isaiah 5:26Isaiah 5:27 ), [LOWTH]. MAURER thinks the Hebrew will not bear the rendering "levies" or "armies." He translates, "There is not one (of the Philistine watch guards) who will remain alone (exposed to the enemy) at his post," through fright. On "alone," compare Psalms 102:7 , Hosea 8:9 .